The retailer plans to close 33 Sears and 13 Kmart locations in November, which will leave it with fewer than 800 full-line stores nationwide. As recently as 2012, the company had 1,305 Kmart stores and 867 full-line Sears stores in the U.S.

While the store closures mean it will be harder to find a Sears or Kmart this holiday season, both retailers are likely to survive to see the new year.

"I don’t think the company will have disappeared by then as it is doing enough to keep its head above water,'' said Neil Saunders, managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData.

But shoppers may find shelves that are far from full. "Stock levels will likely be down as vendors are cautious,'' Saunders said.

The company’s finances look increasingly untenable, with a whopping debt payment due in January as losses continue to mount.

Sears stock fell 5.9 percent percent to close at $1.11 a share Thursday, and the entire company had a stock market value of about $120 million.

S&P Global Market Intelligence estimated Sears lost about $251 million in its second fiscal quarter. Those losses are likely to continue barring an unexpected turnaround in fortunes for the retailer.

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Forty-five Kmart stores and 18 Sears stores will be closing in late January 2018, the company said Thursday. Hal Degraff, of Livonia, Mich., stopped by to take a photograph of the Livonia Kmart. He has shopped there for at least a dozen years and said that he will miss it. Bill Bresler, USA TODAY NETWORK

Customers shop at Chicago's last remaining Sears store May 3, 2018 in Chicago. The store, which opened in 1938, is scheduled to close in July. Sears opened its first retail store in Chicago in 1925. SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

Signs in the window of a Sears store advertise the store's closing on May 3, 2018 in Chicago. . The store, which opened in 1938, is the city's last remaining Sears store. Sears opened its first retail store in Chicago in 1925. SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

On Nov. 3, 2017, it was announced a total of 63 K-Mart and Sears stores have been targeted for closure to cut costs. Traffic passes by a Sears department store in Brooklyn's Flatbush, in New York. Sears, once the monolith of American retail, in March 2017 announced that there is "substantial doubt" that it will be able to keep its doors open. Bebeto Matthews, AP

Generations of Americans picked their holiday gifts from Sears catalogues, first published in 1933. In 2017 Sears brought back its "Wish Book'' with a digital twist hoping to lure consumers back to the retailer of toys, appliances and apparel. Sears, Roebuck and Co.

A shopper walks up to a Sears department store at the Tri-County Mall, in Springdale, Ohio in this March 2017 file photo. Sears will no longer sell Whirlpool appliances, ending a business partnership that dates make more than 100 years. John Minchillo, AP

Customers shop at a Kmart store on Aug. 24, 2017 in Elmhurst, Illinois. Sears Holdings Corporation, the owner of Kmart, said today it was planning on closing another 28 Kmart store including this Elmhurst location. Scott Olson, Getty Images

A sign announcing the store will be closing hangs above a Sears store on Aug. 24, 2017 in Chicago. Sears Holdings Corporation, which owns both Sears and Kmart, said it was planning on closing another 28 Kmart stores. Scott Olson, Getty Images

This is a vintage Sears Roebuck & Co. in Rochester, N.Y. The company that operates Sears, the department store chain that dominated retail for decades, warned March 21, 2017, that it faces "substantial doubt" about its ability to stay in business unless it can borrow more and tap cash from more of its assets. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle via the USA TODAY Network

Sears, which at the end of its fiscal year had about 140,000 employees, said that it expects to continue to try to generate cash from real estate sales and borrowing. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle via the USA TODAY Network

Founded in 1886, Sears was built around its famous catalog that was so complete that entire houses could be ordered -- delivered in pieces to be built on a site. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle via the USA TODAY Network

Sears is under financial pressure and has warned it may fail. But it has seen many better days. Here, Sears store associates in Schaumburg, Ill. help customers shop more than 1,000 doorbuster deals on Thanksgiving Day in 2015 Jean-Marc Giboux, AP Images for Sears

With about $466 million in total cash as of May 5, the company may be running out of options.

On the horizon: More than $400 million in debt payments are coming due in the company's fourth fiscal quarter, which goes through January, according to Debtwire, a provider of news and analysis of corporate and municipal debt.

Sears declined to comment. But Chief Financial Officer Rob Riecker said in a statement in May that the company would pursue "repayments, refinancings and extensions of" near-term debt "to support our transformation efforts."

As investors await details of the company's second-quarter earnings expected sometime in the next week or so, the retailer's fate likely rests in the hands of its CEO, chairman and largest shareholder, Eddie Lampert, who owns nearly 50 percent of the company.

Lampert has kept Sears alive over the last several years through a series of store closures, cost cuts and financial transactions, often involving the extension of loans from his hedge fund to the retailer.

Lampert offered on Aug. 14 to buy the retailer's Kenmore household appliances brand and other assets in a deal that would inject up to $480 million of badly needed cash into the company. In a letter to the company, he described a speedy Kenmore deal as "critical," though he did not say what would happen if the company rejects his offer. An independent committee of the company's board is weighing the deal.

"Getting the Kenmore deal done, it brings in cash, but the reality is it doesn’t change the dynamic of the business," said Philip Emma, senior analyst at Debtwire.

The dynamic is clear: Sears and Kmart have been unable to stem their steep sales decline and corresponding losses.

And the two chains can’t look to consumers to come to their rescue.

It has been years since either chain was a major influence in the retail sector. The company has been dwarfed by online giant Amazon and outrun by more agile big-box rivals such Walmart. Meanwhile, specialized store chains such as Best Buy that offer similar products but at cheaper prices have delivered a more appealing shopping experience in person and online.

“Sears and Kmart are just not going to come back,'' said Bob Phibbs, CEO of New York-based consultancy the Retail Doctor. "Shoppers are turning to other retailers like Walmart, Kohl’s and TJ Maxx. The few people that still go into Sears or Kmart find dirty stores, items out of stock and uninterested employees. At the end of the day, they’re not innovating, and they gave up on their customers. They are brands in free fall.”

And while Sears is steeped in nostalgia for some Americans, it's not even considered by many millennials and their teen peers who make up Generation Z. “Most younger shoppers don’t have Sears on their radar,'' said Saunders. "The brand is completely irrelevant to them."

Lampert has said that he's "fighting like hell" to ensure Sears survives. Critics say he has designed deals to ensure that he continues making money while also putting himself in position to gain access to the company's best assets, including its prime real estate.